Crocheting a blanket or afghan can be done even by a beginner with very basic crochet stitches. All you have to do is repeat the stitches row after row until the blanket reaches the desired right size. The blanket can be made as a continuous big project or constructed out of smaller squares and rectangles stitched together. Using a row counter and stitch markers will be helpful if you need to leave a large project to do something else.

If you are making baby blankets, it is better to avoid lacy patterns as a baby's fingers can become entangled in the gaps. Specific crochet stitches are used by crafters who like to do cross stitch once the crocheted blanket is complete.

You will need a pattern to do create a crochet blanket. A simple search on Google for "crochet afghans" or "crochet blanket" will display a list of sites hosting free patterns. There are many crochet pattern books available to purchase also. Granny squares make good patterns for a blanket. You can make a big square or join smaller squares to create the desired size. Crochet Today, Crochet World and Crochet! are some of the crochet magazines where you can find patterns. If you are creative, you can create patterns using the basic crochet stitchessuch as double crochet or half double crochet.

Selecting the yarn is the next step in creating a crochet blanket. To select a yarn, you need to think of how frequently you need to wash the finished product. If you need to use it as a baby blanket, it will be better to choose acrylic yarns to withstand the frequent washing. Wool is good to make blanket, but you have to consider the fact that it can be felted. If you need to make a blanket very quickly, chunkier yarns are the best option. If you have a lot of time in hand and to make a light weight blanket, consider using the sport weight yarn.http://nayaknitter.wordpress.com/ http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/weight.html

Choosing colors is also important. If the blanket has to match with the decor of the designated room, then choose the yarn colors according to that. To know how the colors look together, you can place the yarns side by side and check how the color combination looks. There are variegated yarns available if you do not want to change colors in between. These are yarns dyed with different colors at equal intervals. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-variegated-yarn.htmThey can make a simple pattern look complicated.However, the look of the finished product is somewhat unpredictable with variegated yarns. So it would be better to have a test swatch done with the pattern before using that.

Once you select the yarns for your project, it is time to choose a crochet hook. If you are using chunkier yarns, bigger hooks will be your natural choice. A smaller size hook like 3mm will be fine to do crocheting with sport weight yarn. If you are following the gauge given in the pattern, make sure to do a gauge swatch to figure out the correct hook needed to obtain the gauge.http://www.mahalo.com/crochet-hooks

Once you finished crocheting, you can choose to make a border around the blanket. It can be one in a single color or rows of different colors. It can be done using the single crochet, double crochet or picot edging.http://www.woolcrafting.com/crocheted-edgings.html Make sure to weave in the loose ends of the yarns through the stitches. This can be done by using a yarn needle.http://crochet.about.com/library/bl_weave_ends.htm